After analyzing more than 1,000 survey responses from customers who purchased its US travel insurance products through travel advisors and other retail distribution partners, Allianz found that among retail customers who don’t plan to travel this year, many are planning to book international travel in 2021 and some of those international travelers will choose to cruise.
Cruise in mind for 20% of those planning international travel in 2021
According to the Allianz data, 60% of its retail customers who say they won’t travel until 2021 plan to visit an international destination for their next trip, with 20% of those indicating they will cruise.
Leading the survey respondents, 50% of Allianz retail customers indicated they will stay in a hotel or resort, while other retail customers said they will stay with friends and family (13%), followed by a rental house (8%), a personal vacation house (4%) and only 2% plan on spending their vacation in an RV, tent or cabin.
The results surveyed a random sample of 1,072 customers who purchased a policy through a travel advisor or other retail distribution partner between June 1, 2019, and Feb. 29, 2020, with travel ending before March 2020. The survey ran from May 20 to June 25. In addition, Allianz Travel analyzed the destinations selected during travel insurance quotes provided to its online customers during the second quarter.
Although ocean cruising is not resuming in the US until at least November 2020 — at least, Cruise Lines International Association members are paused until then — elsewhere in the world, large ships are already sailing with limited capacity, social distancing and other safety measures.
Customers more open to booking overseas destinations
'Travel will continue to evolve in response to the unfolding of global events. Meanwhile, we are discovering that our customers are more open to taking trips to overseas destinations once again,' said Joe Mason, chief marketing officer at Allianz Partners. 'One area where we are expecting to see an increasing interest in the year ahead is in international cruise travel.'
As for insurance travel products, Allianz is currently offering several temporary accommodations, providing coverage for trip cancellations, trip interruptions and emergency medical care for those who become ill with COVID-19 and has temporarily extended refunds of travel insurance premiums to customers whose travel suppliers have canceled their trips due to coronavirus (restrictions apply).
The travel insurance and assistance company is also allowing customers to use their policy within 770 days of the purchase date so that it can apply to a new or rescheduled trip. Customers who are moving their existing plan must change their plan coverage dates before traveling and prior to any loss for which they are seeking coverage. Furthermore, if the customer takes advantage of this option to insure a new trip or reschedule one that was paid for with a travel supplier voucher, any amount paid by a travel supplier voucher would be considered part of that customer’s insured trip payments.
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